00:30Martique. How I spent my summer vacation by Wallace Bleff. When summer began I
00:41headed out west. My parents had told me I needed a rest. Your imagination, they said,
00:49is getting too wild. It will do you some good to relax for a while. So they put me
00:59aboard a westbound train to visit Aunt Fern in her house on the plains. But I was captured
01:13by cowboys, a wild-looking crowd. Their manners were rough and their voices were loud. I'm
01:24trying to get to my aunt's house, I said, but they carried me off to their cow camp
01:30instead. The cattle boss growled as he told me to sit. We need a new cowboy. Our old cowboy
01:41quit. We could sure use your help. So what do you say? I thought for a minute, then I
01:47told him, okay. Then I wrote to Aunt Fern so she'd know where I'd gone. I said not
01:53to worry. I wouldn't be long. Dear Aunt, Captured by cowboys. Don't worry. See you
01:59soon. Love, Wallace. That night I was given a new set of clothes. Soon I looked like a
02:09wrangler from my head to my toes. But there's more to a cowboy than boots and a hat. I found
02:15out the next day and the day after that. Each day I discovered some new cowboy tricks,
02:26from roping and riding to making fire with sticks. Slowly the word spread all over the
02:45land. That wrangler kid Blef is a first-rate cowhand. The day finally came when the round
02:55up was through. Aunt Fern called, come on over, bring your cowboys with you. She was
03:02cooking a barbecue that very same day. So we cleaned up a little and we headed her way.
03:12The food was delicious. There was plenty to eat and the band that was playing just
03:17couldn't be beat. But suddenly I noticed a terrible sight. The cattle were stirring and
03:25stamping with fright. It's a scene I'll remember till my very last day. They're gonna stampede,
03:33I heard somebody say. Just then they came charging. They charged right at me. I looked
03:43for a hiding place, a rock or a tree. What I found was a tablecloth spread out on the
03:53ground. So I turned like a matador and spun it around. It was a new kind of cowboying,
03:59a fantastic display. The cattle were frightened and stampeded away. Then the cowboys all cheered,
04:11Blef's a true buckaroo. They shook my hand and slapped my back and Aunt Fern hugged me
04:17too. And that's how I spent my summer vacation. I can hardly wait for show and tell.
